History of Encore Azaleas

People who adore spring blooming azaleas can now enjoy an explosion of Encore® Azalea color season after season. Encore® Azaleas are the only patented brand of azaleas to bloom in spring,summer and fall. Each of the 24 Encore varieties begins their performance with the spring flowering season. Once this “first act” of blooming concludes, new shoots begin to grow and set buds. The Encore® Azalea's "second act" opens when these buds begin blooming into full flower mid-summer. This unique bloom season continues through the fall, the curtain dropping with the onset of cold weather. But, the show goes on. As an "encore," these exceptional azaleas flower again with traditional spring azaleas and the process starts over.

Invented by plant breeder Robert E. "Buddy" Lee of Independence, La., the evergreen Encore® Azaleas enjoy more sun than traditional azaleas, but offer the same easy care. Lee first envisioned Encore Azaleas in the early 1980s when he found a tray of azalea cuttings blooming in the summer sun at his small Louisiana azalea nursery. Inspired, he began crossing traditional spring-blooming azaleas with the rare Taiwanese summer-blooming azalea, Rhododendron oldhamii.